The 56-year-old said: “When you live in a small village like Amberley everyone knows everyone. When someone dies it’s a part of the village that dies too. It leaves a hole there.”

He added: “Elisabeth was a great laugh once she got to know you. We’re all going to miss her.”

Before retiring, Elisabeth had been a nurse and travelled the globe with her husband, Hugh, who had been a leading expert on X-ray equipment.

He had also been a former chairman of Amberley Parish Council.

Mike Toynbee, who knew the couple well, described Mrs Belcher as a caring and devoted character, who tended to her husband after he suffered a stroke, right up until his eventual death about ten years ago.

Mr Toynbee added: “She also looked after her elderly mother, who turned 100, for many years, and died about three years ago.

“She moved from Owl Barn to North Road Farm in Hog Lane about five or six years ago and was very happy in her new home. As one resident summed her up: ‘Such a lovely lady with indomitable spirit’.”

In a touching floral tribute left outside Mr Belcher’s home this morning, one resident wrote: “With deep sadness of the death of Elisabeth, a wonderful, kind and funny woman who we will always remember.”

Fire investigators, alongside police scenes of crime officers were this morning combing the cottage for any clues as to how the blaze started.

However, a source at the fire service said that emergency crews were not treating the incident as suspicious.